Creating an Authentic Framework for Your Business
Do you have a clear overview of your business or service? An accurate description of your client’s interaction with your services? Or a comprehensive understanding of the processes you use to attract, onboard and serve your customers, including client after-care and further development of your business?
These questions formed the core challenges I faced during a recent “Create Your Framework” course with Authentic Business Coach, George Kao (https://www.georgekao.com/frameworkold.html).
To be honest, I wasn’t entirely clear about what a “framework” was when I started the course. But like the best teachers, George didn’t define one for us but rather asked us to think the problem through ourselves and come up with our own definition. I began by creating an inventory of all the online tools, apps, and software I used in order to run my business such as Zoom, Gmail, Hubspot, Canva, and so on. From that list, I organized them into categories: Advertising, Communication, Productivity, Content Creation, Storage, and so on again. While this was a useful exercise, I was only marginally closer to an understanding of what a framework was. While I’d focused on my technology and practices, others on the course talked about philosophical and aesthetic “frameworks”. I was confused. Did I have a philosophical or aesthetic framework upon which I structured my services?
Yes, I did, although it was hard to describe at first. I offer end-of-life planning services which means I encourage conversations around our mortality, our life and death values, and the practical aspects of getting our affairs in order, or, as I like to say more playfully, “get our ducks in a row”. My work involves compassionate listening, facilitation and storytelling skills. In fact, the phrase “get our ducks in a row” inspired both a story pattern and the imagery I use in my branding, thus creating a more playful, lighter approach to the subject. I’m also a student of philosophy, Stoic philosophy in particular, and an advocate of servant leadership. And as a professional storyteller, I have been a keen adherent of Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey” as a framework for understanding narratives. All of this came out in the journaling exercise that George had us do as homework and, if nothing else, helped me clarify what I was about and why I served my passion for end-of-life planning.
Still, I felt as if I had pieces of a framework but hadn’t been able to put them together to create a solid scaffolding. George then had us imagine our ideal clients and how we would convey our core messaging to them. Imagine sitting with them and having a dialogue with one another. More journaling. Three drafts became one. Gradually, a core vision and message began to emerge.
In between sessions, I began sketching my reflections using a variety of structures: a circle, a spiral, a triangle, and a linear timeline. Each suggested a promise of a framework but the final piece eluded me. George then asked us to come up with several names for our framework and invite our social media audience to comment and offer feedback. He made us commit to doing it without too much hesitation or over-thinking (something I’m guilty of). So I threw up the following suggestions on my Facebook and Instagram business platforms: “My End of Life Plan” (which was my company name), “Future Personal and Health Care Planning”, and “Getting Your Ducks in a Row: Future Life Care Planning”.
After about a week, my audience was split between numbers 1 and 3. They liked the simplicity of “My End of Life Plan” and the playfulness and colour of “Getting Your Ducks in a Row”. That’s when I started looking more seriously at my ducks. I suddenly saw them in my mind’s eye floating downriver, like they were on a journey, just like my clients. I thought of “hero’s journey” and that brought to mind the challenges my clients faced at each stage of their journey and the reward they experienced at the end and how they were more empowered to share their end-of-life planning with their family and friends.
So, I used my basic graphic design skills (using Canva and some free images from Pixabay) and created an illustration of yellow ducks swimming on a river, Each represented a particular topic from my course offering: wills, powers-of-attorney, funeral planning, Advance Care Planning, legacy, and digital assets management. I overlaid the illustration with coloured boxes, each representing one of six stages of my client’s journey: Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Service, Loyalty, and Advocacy. And attached to each box, I listed the actions or practices I took to attract, engage, and assist the client (see illustration).
Looking at my illustration, I felt as if I not only had a framework but a better understanding of what it was and why I needed one. I could see both my clients’ journey and the processes that described how I worked and engaged them. By giving my attention to each stage of the journey, I could ensure that I attend to my client’s needs as well as the needs of my service. From “Awareness” to “Advocacy” my framework provided a list of actions that I needed to take in order to nourish both my client and my business: authentic communication, clear processes and services, and client care that extended beyond the end of taking one of my courses or workshops.
I know there’s much more to learn. I’m only halfway through George’s course. Yet already, I have a much clearer understanding of what a framework is and why I need one.
Do you have your framework in place? If not, I recommend George Kao’s “Create Your Framework” course. I guarantee your business or service will stand on more solid ground for years to come and you’ll have a clearer picture of what you do and how and why you do it. That, I believe, is pure gold to solopreneurs like us.
To learn more about George Kao’s “Create Your Framework” course, go to https://www.georgekao.com/frameworkold.html
Michael Williams
My End of Life Plan
https://www.myendoflifeplan.ca
Hamilton, Canada
